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Muscle Into the Top 4%

We hear a lot of talk about disruption, but not much about what you can do about it.

Yes, it’s true that many businesses and industries will be “disrupted”, but it’s not necessarily bad news for everybody. In fact, for the most agile, nimble and innovative businesses in an industry, disruption will be a positive force.

You might have heard the statistic that only 20% of new businesses survive the first five years, and only 20% of them survive the next five. That means only 4% of businesses survive a decade.

The same applies now, but in a much smaller time frame. Now it doesn’t take 10 years to sort out the wheat from the chaff; it can happen in 18 months or less.

In other words, if you don’t rise to the top, you’re likely to fall to the bottom.

So how do you become one of the lucky few?

There’s an old saying, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

That’s true, but when it comes to being fit for the future in a fast-changing world, it’s better to follow this philosophy:

“The better I prepare, the luckier I get.”

There are many ways to prepare yourself, your team and your business for disruption. Let me share one with you here: the skill of transdisciplinarity.

In brief, transdisciplinarity means being a connector. It means you look around at what’s happening in the world – especially outside your industry – and figure out how it could possibly relate to you.

What could you use? How could you leverage it? Where can you incorporate it into your business?

For example, in a recent webinar, I gave participants the chance to try this out themselves. We looked at five technologies – self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, drones, and nanotechnology (tiny robots) – and I asked people to think of ways those technologies could affect their business. They only had 2 minutes, but they were still able to create some interesting connections.

Here’s a snapshot of some of their responses (click the image to see it in full size):

What are YOU doing to build your transdisciplinarity?

Transdisciplinarity is a vital skill for being fit for the future – especially if you apply it regularly and proactively, not just randomly and reactively.

How can you make it part of your regular operations for your organisation, your people, and of course yourself?

Watch the webinar recording

You can watch the full recording of the webinar here:

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